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Stress Costs U.S. $300 Billion a Year

Posted by michael on from the nervous-tic dept.

jburroug writes "A new study, as reported in the New York Times claims that the stress of the modern always-on work environment is taking a far greater toll on the health of workers than previously believed, to the tune of $300 billion in lost productivity and increased health care costs in the U.S. alone."

7 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. And they wonder why by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Just today there was an article about hypertasking.
    Folks, shut off the cellphone, log out of the internet and leave work at work because you're slowly killing yourself with stress.

  2. i'm a conservative by HBI · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously.

    However, I have to wonder what a high GDP growth and near-full employment are worth if you are dead.

    Obviously there is a problem with ANY form of social engineering - it's untested, and has unpredictable results on society. We conservatives say this in response to welfare programs and affirmative action. Modern capitalism and the downsizing trend have social effects. That's not subject to argument. Instead of a knee-jerk conservative 'but it could damage productivity' response, how about taking a look at the problems instead?

    --
    HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
    1. Re:i'm a conservative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I consider myself fiscally conservative (if that matters). I am a self-employed consultant in two different fields (digital imaging and programming). I work hard when I'm working, but when I'm not working, I don't even check my email. I like to work a few hours a day including weekends, but I don't like to work more than 7-8 hours a day.

      My view is: nobody forces you to work as hard as you possibly can. So if you don't want to, don't. You're not lazy, or "French", or whatever, as long as you are making enough to keep from depending on others for anything, and you lead the lifestyle you want.

      Sure, some might look down their nose at you if you "only" work 35 or 40 hours a week, or if you take every Friday off. But you shouldn't structure your lifestyle to suit your friends. Find friends that understand your lifestyle. The more people that do this, the more employers will support it and you don't have to resort to being self-employed if you don't want to do that.

      I think that's the conservative viewpoint: don't like working so hard? Then work less!

  3. Garumph by iamdrscience · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem about anything that surveys the economic losses caused by productivity losses is that they're all vague measurements of approxiamate things that are then multiplied by a huge group of people. Really, what this means is that while there might be truth in the idea these statistics try to show, the numbers are almost completely bullshit. For example, let's suppose 100 million workers in the united states have air blowing hand dryers instead of paper towels in their restrooms. These dryers take longer than paper towels, let's say maybe a minute instead of 10 seconds. I would think it's fair to say that on average a worker makes 1.5 trips to the bathroom per day. So if the average hourly wage of these employees is something like 15 bucks, 10 seconds of paper towels is worth $0.0417, one minute of air drying is worth $0.25. That means that we're wasting ~$31 Million per day! That's billions per year! My God! Something has to be done!

  4. It's all about balance. by Soko · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Buddists have one thing right - there is a Yin and a Yang to everything. Call it a dual edged sword, whetever - in our world, there is an upside and a downside to everything.

    There will enevitably be many +5 (Insightful) comments about how we're being mowed down by "the Man, squeezing more blood out of us to make more money", but when you think about it, the reason for that is we all, in reality, want to be "the Man". We want the things they dangle in front of us, that require disposable income to acquire. "Ooooh, Shiny iPod/Beemer/Opteron" crosses our lips and we've bought into this system. Work more to get more things for our "leisure time", which ends up being non-existant. "If work hard, I'll get promoted and get that raise - then I'll get a life" used to be my mantra. Now, after my good paying job was killed and in essence just moved out of province in the name of profits, I'm fed up enough to say "Fuck you - as long as my family is warm, healthy, clothed and fed I'm happy".

    Capitalism is good, it's the best system we've got, but like all things it can go too far. Don't forget why your toiling away - it's to make a life, not make money. Remember, there is a downside to everything - no exceptions.

    Meh. Just Crown Royal influenced ramblings from a slightly bitter old man. On to our regularily scheduled bashing of "the man"...

    Soko

    --
    "Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm." - Anonymous
  5. Unemlpoyment is OK when you have good benefits by Cryofan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    France and most other European countries will give you far more unemployment benefits than American workers gets. In many EU countries, one could drawa years of unemployment if laid off. Try that here.

    Plus, welfare is far more generous there.

    --
    eat shiat and bark at the moon
  6. Re:Meh by Romothecus · · Score: 5, Insightful
    GDP can be easily shown to be a falsely inflated measure of economic value and production. If one country gives mothers maternity leave, and mothers stay home and raise children, this lowers GDP in comparison to a second country where there is maternity leave and babies are cared for by hired professionals. The act of hiring and paying a professional increases GDP by the amount the professional caregiver is paid. However, all other things being equal, the actual amount of work done is no greater. All that has happened is social capital has been internalized by the market in one instance, and GDP looks higher. This is not necessarily better unless you think GDP is some magical number that makes everything better.

    In another example, let's say I spill a tanker of oil off the New England coast. Damage to the economy and value of lost oil will be arbitrarily set at $50 billion dollars. If, however, the cleanup costs are $60 billion dollars paid out to various workers to clean up the mess, then the GDP will actually increase by $10 billion dollars, despite the fact that nothing actually got produced - some idiot just made a big mess and then someone cleaned it up.

    GDP is big fat lie.